


My True Love Gave to Me

by ponymom



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: very brief mention of BDSM, very creative Harry, very indulgent Louis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:55:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21753214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ponymom/pseuds/ponymom
Summary: After puzzling over a Christmas gift for Louis, Harry comes to what he believes is the ultimate gift for his true love.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28
Collections: 1D Christmas Fest





	My True Love Gave to Me

Harry has always tried to be creative for Christmas where Louis is concerned, but this year, he thinks he may have truly outdone himself. After finding that he had possibly gone a bit over the top for Louis’ birthday, he decided he had to go equally over the top for Christmas. So he poured over gift ideas and asked everyone to the point of annoyance and he was told pointedly to stop asking. He was doing one more search online with his favorite Christmas playlist on for inspiration, when the song came on and his head popped up from his laptop as inspiration hit him square in the face. He immediately changed his search tactics and started planning.

Louis stretched and let out a huge yawn as he slowly came awake. Christmas morn was here, another birthday has come and gone. Harry had really gone all out for his birthday, and he was struggling to get out of bed due to the aftereffects of Harry’s “birthday celebrations”, not that he was complaining. Onto the next round, he considered as he hauled himself from the bed to head downstairs to see what Father Christmas had delivered. He came downstairs and rounded the corner into the front parlour and skidded to a stop. There was a tree there and it wasn’t the neatly decorated Christmas tree in the corner, but a leafy tree, in a large pot. Blinking more sleep from his eyes, he tried to focus once again on the site in front of him. Yes, there was a decorated pine and a slender trunked tree in the front room. Which then moved. Louis took a step back and started heading for the kitchen where he was certain Harry was making breakfast.

Sure enough, there was Harry at the hob, stirring some eggs in a pan. Although his stomach started grumbling at the smells coming from Harry’s labours, he had to get some answers first.  
“Babe, there’s a tree in the front room” he informs Harry while attempting to snatch a piece of bacon from the plate next to the hob. Harry grins indulgently over his shoulder, “Yes, it's called a Christmas tree. You helped decorate it with me”.  
“No, not that tree, there is a regular tree in a pot and its moving. THAT tree” Louis snarked back, while pointing into the front room at the still rustling tree. The tree rustled once again and this time, a sound that was unmistakably bird like came from the tree. Louis freezes, eyes going wide as a bird emerges from the branches. “There is a bird. In the tree. That is not a Christmas tree. In our parlour.”

“Oh, THAT tree! Yes, that is part of your gift” Harry nonchalantly says while continuing to cook breakfast, as if the appearance of a tree with a bird in the house is not all that unusual.

“Gift. Why do I want a tree with a bird in it?”  
“I said it was PART of your gift. There is more that will make sense when everything is together.”  
“OK, so where is the rest of the gift?  
“You are just going to have to be patient and wait for it.” Harry grinned to himself knowing that Louis and patience were two words that would NEVER fit in the same sentence.  
“I have to wait. For an explanation about a bird in a tree in the parlour, which is part of a gift to me for Christmas.” Louis is deadpan as he repeats Harry’s explanation. “You are cleaning up after the fucking bird then.”

Presents are exchanged and Louis has finally reached the last one. He holds it cautiously in his hands as he side eyes the tree once again with the bird still in the cage, sitting amongst the branches. “Love, I haven’t opened a single thing that makes the tree and the bird make any more sense than when I found it. This is going to be the one that answers the question, right?”  
“Actually, no. You have to wait until tomorrow”  
“Tomorrow. The bird and tree are staying until tomorrow.”  
“Yes they are”  
Harry looked WAY too smug with himself. “I am still not cleaning up after no fucking bird, gift or no gift”

The next day came and Louis once again staggered out of bed and headed in the direction of the smell of food cooking. He cast a wary eye toward the front parlour where the tree still stood with it feathered occupant, and continued towards the smell of the food. He suddenly came to a skidding halt and dashed back to the doorway. There was a birdcage with more birds resting on the floor next to the tree.

“Harry! Are we starting an aviary that you haven’t told me about?”  
“What makes you think that?”  
“Because there are more birds in the front parlour.”  
“That is another part of your Christmas present.”  
“When did I ever say that I wanted birds?”  
“You didn’t. Its the gesture”  
Louis wanders into the kitchen, still keeping one eye on the birds, the other eye, with a raised eyebrow, on Harry.  
“You might be wanting to explain this gesture a bit better because right now, I can’t think of one single reason why there should be birds in the house. As soon as Cliff get here with Lottie, that's going to be the end of the birds, you do realize that.”  
“Cliff had best not be thinking about harming your present or he won’t be getting his.”  
“You really need to explain this one because I am not making the connection with a tree and some birds”  
“If you think about it long enough, you will get it”  
“So you really aren’t going to explain anything other than ‘Its a gesture’, is that what you are saying?”  
“You have to figure this out all yourself.”  
Louis grumbled his way through breakfast and still sat glaring at the various bird cages.  
“Do you at least know what kind of birds they are?”  
“Of course I do, I bought them.”  
“And?”  
Harry gestures in the direction of the cage resting on the floor “Those are doves. That one in the tree is a partridge.”  
“Doves and a partridge?” That's like a real bird? I only thought that was a line in that s….” Louis stops without finishing the word or sentence. He marches over in the direction of the tree and the birds, staring incredulously at them. He slowly turns to glare at Harry.  
“The song. The song that has a partridge in it, as well as two doves. Please tell me that the tree is NOT a pear tree.”  
“I’m afraid I can’t do that because it is a pear tree”  
Louis patience has come to an end. “Harry, am I going to be getting all the gifts from that Christmas song?”  
“Well, not exactly all of them, but some variation of all of them, yes. For the next ten days, yes. Isn’t that a romantic gesture? Receiving all those gifts from your true love?”  
Louis slowly sinks to the sofa. He needs a minute to process, his brain scrambles trying to remember every verse of the song. Wasn’t there something about swans? And drummers?  
But this is Harry’s big romantic gesture, so he decides to indulge Harry, as he always does.  
“Yes, Harry, its very romantic, as well as very creative. As long as you acknowledge that it is also potentially very messy.”  
“Oh, I have already taken care of that part.” Of course Harry has. Louis can hardly wait.

The next morning, Louis strolls into the front parlour, this time having an idea what to expect to see in the room. He jerks to a stop, this isn’t exactly what he had envisioned. There are three chickens in a pen in sitting next to the cage with the doves.  
“Harry, what…..?” He is at a loss.  
“Well, this was as close to French hens as I could get, just regular hens. Oh look, fresh eggs!” Harry sits down next to the pen and opens the door on the top and reaches into the makeshift nest made of straw in the pen. Sure enough, there are two eggs sitting there.  
“We aren’t keeping these, Harry, eggs or not. You know this, right? We aren’t home nearly enough for this.”  
“No we aren’t keeping all of them, I know that.”  
The qualifier on that sentence worries Louis. “How many of the ‘all of them’ are we actually keeping?”  
“Well, I was thinking we could keep the hens, for the eggs. The rest, well, that depends. We can plant the tree in the back garden, the partridge is actually rented since I couldn’t find one for sale. It came from a magic supply house. So did the doves. I didn’t know you could rent birds but apparently if you are a magician, you can. Very practical.”  
Louis is at a loss for words, which doesn’t happen often, but when it does, Harry is always involved. He still has nine more gifts to deal with, so he is staying quiet.

Its day four. Its calling birds day and Louis is thinking sweet little songbirds will be on order. Sure enough, yet another bird cage has taken up residence in the parlour. Hang on, its TWO more birdcages. With two birds in each cage. But they aren’t exactly small. But they are singing.  
Once again, he approaches Harry with the inevitable questions about today’s gift. “Why are the birds in separate cages? Why aren’t all four in one cage?”  
“They are lovebirds and they mate for life! Just like us! I think I want to keep them, aren’t they sweet?”  
The hens are clucking, the lovebirds are singing and the doves are cooing. The partridge is making some noise, but he doesn’t know what to call the sound it makes. Harry is beaming at the lovebirds, so Louis says nothing.

“Look, I know what today is and its five golden rings. I don’t wear rings, you know this. I don’t know what you expect me to do with rings.”  
Harry stands in front of Louis with a small box. Harry opens the box. Sure enough, there are five golden rings in the box. Five golden cock rings. Louis’ head snaps up to see Harry’s grin. Louis grabs the box, then Harry’s arm and marches straight back to the bedroom. This is worth the racket of birds.

Louis doesn’t want to get out of bed. He can already hear the noise from downstairs. Why are there so many birds in that crazy song? And why did Harry decide this was a good idea?  
Harry appears in the bedroom doorway and Louis quickly shuts his eyes and feigns sleep. Harry isn’t buying it.  
“I know you are awake, your eye is twitching in that way that only happens when you are awake and something is annoying you. I wasn’t exactly counting on the geese being quite so...much. I just learned that they are regularly used as guard animals and I can see why. I am going to put them into the back garden and I PROMISE that they will only be here for the day, I have already called for them to be picked up.”  
Louis doesn’t open his eyes. “I really hope that you have thought things out for tomorrow with the swans.”  
There is silence. Louis barely opens his eyes to see Harry with a troubled look on his face. It appears that his erstwhile husband has NOT considered what will happen with the swans.  
Harry makes an abrupt about face, heading out of the bedroom. “Need to make a call.”

Its swan day, as Louis has come to call each day of the expected gift, having had to Google the song lyrics to be certain of what each day would bring. But it is surprisingly...quiet. Possibly too quiet. What happened to the other birds? The lovebirds are generally up and cooing, or whatever it is that they do. But there is relative silence. Louis sits up. Something is up, he can feel it. No smells are wafting upstairs, so Harry isn’t making breakfast, as is his norm. Louis fumbles with the tangled duvet, pulls on a pair of track pants laying on the floor and heads in search of his spouse. When he enters the parlour, he sees covers on the cages, which explains the silence of the birds. He chuckles to himself, that should be a film he thinks. Continuing his search, he heads to the music room. No Harry. The home gym. No Harry. Heading back upstairs, he searches the spare bedrooms and even the one room he never enters, the laundry room. Harry is nowhere around. He checks the garage, Harry’s car is still here so he hasn’t left the house. His trainers are still lined up neatly on the mat next to Louis’ shoes, not so neatly kicked in the general direction of the mat. He briefly considers calling or texting Harry about today’s gift and decides that's the best way to deal with it, to rip off the plaster. Reaching for his mobile, he texts 'All right, I’m awake. Where is it?' to Harry. No response. This is getting downright disturbing. Louis checks the Google search he did several days ago to be certain that somewhere in this house, there are supposed to be seven swans. Wait. Seven swans a-swimming. Louis takes off at a trot towards the indoor pool that they had put in right before the hiatus. He slides open the door. There is Harry, drifting about the pool in an inflatable swan, surrounded by six other inflatable swans. He spies Louis standing at the side of the pool, mouth agape at the spectacle of seven inflatable swans in the pool. He grins wickedly and gives a huge smack to the surface of the water, causing a big splash that hits Louis. Louis cowers briefly from the onslaught of water, then turns to glare at Harry, who sits smugly in the swan. Louis starts stripping out of the track pants he threw on when he got out of bed.  
“All is fair in love and war. And this is war.”

After the epic water war that may or may not have involved using the swans as battering rams, which also resulted in at least two swan casualties, Louis was starting to get into the spirit of the gifts. But today's had him a tad bit more concerned than previous. Harry had indeed gotten creative with the swans so that there weren’t actual swans at their house, but how was he going to get around maids a-milking? Surely he wasn’t going to be bringing in cows. The birds, that was one thing. They were small and fit in cages. Cows? And the people that milked them? That was something quite different. Louis was still trying to ponder how Harry was going to manage this as he headed down the stairs. The chaos of the previous gifts had been lessened slightly. The doves and the partridge had been returned to the magicians rental agency, although the pear tree still sat next to the Christmas tree. The chickens however, they were currently situated in a brand new chicken coop in the back garden, as Harry couldn’t resist the lure of having fresh eggs to give up the birds. How that was going to work remained to be seen but for the moment, they weren’t in the parlour. The lovebirds, they were still in their respective cages which had found new locations in the house. Louis didn’t mind them, their gentle coos were a bit calming. Birds in moderation weren’t so bad, he had decided. Which was still on his mind when he walked into the parlour. Harry was, as usual, up before him and today, sat with a small pile of wrapped boxes.  
“What’s this? We already opened presents.”  
“You know what this is. Its part of your gift. You figured this out on day two.”  
“Well, yes, but this isn’t what I expected for maids a-milking.”  
“You don’t know until you open them, so go ahead.”  
Louis sits on the sofa and shoots a glance at the festively wrapped packages then looks back to Harry, trying to figure what he has come up with. Nothing comes to mind, so he shrugs and reaches for the first package. He tears off the wrapping to reveal…..a DVD? He flips it over to read the title. Heidi? He looks at Harry in confusion.  
“Keep going” Harry cajoles.  
Louis reaches for the next item, which when unwrapped is a Heidi doll.  
“Harry, I am not going to unwrap all of this. Just tell me what this is all about.”  
“Well, getting actual maids a-milking wasn’t an option, because that would involve bringing in animals that needed to be milked. You weren’t real thrilled with the birds, so more animals was out of the question, plus there was space and privacy and all that. So I got you a fictional maid who milks. Heidi!”  
Harry is genuinely pleased with himself for thinking this solution up, but for the life of him, Louis can’t think that he has ever had the desire to watch or partake in any other manner anything to do with Heidi. He can only imagine what other Heidi related items that Harry has somehow managed to find and is thankful that his sisters are due to arrive tomorrow. Surely they would appreciate the dolls and he would even make book that his grandparents would like the films, assuming that there was probably more than just the one that he had already unwrapped. Its the thought, its the gesture, its the spirit of giving at Christmas. Louis keeps telling himself this. After all, there have been some good gifts to come of this, fondly remembering yesterday's water battle and the day spent with the golden rings.

The slight let down that was the maids a-milking, which also involved a sulking Harry when he realized that Louis wasn’t quite as inspired as he was, was forgotten the next morning with the arrival of Louis’ siblings and grandparents. The house was full of riotous noise as the younger ones found the lovebirds in their cages and then the chickens in the back garden. Lottie cornered Louis to inquire about the sudden appearance of birds in the house, which Louis merely turned her around and pointed her in Harry’s direction and told her to ask him about it. In retrospect, that may not have been the best of ideas since the way their heads were bent together and the furtive whispering and hand gestures assured Louis that the two of them were up to no good, but what was done was done. They were sitting down to dinner when Louis realized that with all the excitement of the family arriving, he hadn’t gotten his gift from Harry yet. Deciding to ask Harry about it as soon as dinner was over, he sat down with everyone to hear once again about all the wonderful gifts that had been received.  
After dinner was over, Louis went in search of Harry to ask about his gift of the day, but he seemed to have disappeared, and with Lottie, the twins and Doris. Puzzled, but not too concerned, he sat on the floor with his only brother and played with a new Lego with him. No sooner had he gotten settled, when Harry strolled back into the parlour with a satisfied look about him.  
“What has you looking so smug?”  
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”  
“Well, I was going to ask about my gift today, but things got slightly out of hand, but now you are asking, so where is it?”  
Harry waves his hand in the direction of the doorway into the parlour. Doris is the first one through the door, wearing a ballerina outfit, followed by the twins, if ever so slightly less enthusiastically, then Lottie, who looked torn between hysterically laughing and mortified. All the girls were wearing long ballet skirts and they started dancing around in front of Louis, Doris being the most energetic of the dancers.  
“I couldn’t get all nine, but you have some ladies dancing in the meantime.”  
Louis leaned back against the sofa and laughed heartily as Doris spun around until she dizzly stumbled into Phoebe. Lottie and Daisy decided to just join hands and waltz around. How Harry had managed to convince the older girls to participate in this was beyond him, but he loved them and the little performance all the more for it.

Louis’ family stayed at their house overnight and the next morning, Lottie drove off to something she had scheduled and eventually, Louis’ grandparents packed up the younger ones and headed back home. After Louis had waved everyone off, he wandered back into the house to make a cup of tea. He was just getting the teapot out when the bell rang, indicating someone at the gate. Not expecting anyone else that day, Louis headed to the monitor to see who it was. Liam? What was he doing at their house today? Louis puzzled over this as he waited for Liam to park and come to the door.  
“Harry, do you know why Liam is here?”  
“Oh good, right on time!” was the response he got. Clearly Harry was expecting Liam, although Louis had no idea why.  
Louis opened the door to Liam and gave him a hug as Harry made his way into the entryway.  
“I cannot believe you convinced me to do this” Liam muttered while pulling Harry in for a hug.  
“You know you are a sap for these types of things, you are just a big romantic at heart” Harry scoffed back.  
“OK, I give. Why is Liam here and why does he not believe he is here doing whatever it is that you talked him into doing?”  
“Perhaps we should go into the parlour” Harry suggested and led the way through.  
Louis followed behind and sat on the sofa while Harry and Liam whispered together briefly. Liam looked over at Louis and rolled his eyes before sighing deeply.  
“Fine. All right. Whatever. Can we just get this over with?” Liam inquires of Harry.  
“Whenever you want to start” Harry replies.  
Liam rolls up his sleeves and starts bounding around the parlour. Harry frowns at Liam’s actions.  
“That isn’t really leaping, you know.”  
“Wait. Leaping? Its supposed to be lords a-leaping today, right?” Louis questions.  
“Yes, it is, but I could only get Liam.”  
“What does Liam have to do with lords a-leaping?”  
“Well, he is a lord, or at least he has a piece of paper that says he is, and he is supposed to be leaping!” Harry gives Liam his best menacing glare, which isn’t all that menacing, and Liam heaves yet another massive sigh.  
“Fine!” he spits out and starts a slightly more energetic bouncing that one could call leaping. Sort of.  
“You brought Liam out to leap around the parlour? Really?”  
“Well, I also thought it would be nice to have him over for dinner, but yes, he is a lord and he is leaping, so that is today’s gift!”  
Louis falls over sideways on the sofa in laughter. He can’t take this anymore and frantically motions for Liam to cease his actions.  
“Stop. Stop! This is enough! Just, Liam, thank you for indulging my husband and his grand gestures, but please, please just stop.”  
“Thank fuck!” Liam exclaims and drops to the sofa next to Louis. He shoots a glare at Harry before turning to Louis who is still trying to contain his mirth. They both break into a fit of laughter as Harry turns and sulks into the kitchen.  
“I still say that wasn’t really leaping” Harry pouts.

Liam stays for a wonderful dinner that Harry prepares and then for a round of drinks and catching up on all that has been going on since they last saw each other. Eventually, Liam heads for home with a promise to stay in touch before he starts on his next project. Louis cuddles Harry when they are in bed.  
“That was really nice to see Liam again, but you really didn’t have to get upset over his leaping.”  
“He wasn’t trying. He promised leaping in exchange for dinner.”  
“Whatever. It was still a lovely gift, leaping or no leaping.”

The next day, Harry informs Louis that they are going to have to take a short trip for the next gift of the day. Louis considers the options of where they could be headed as Harry bundles him into the car and gets into the drivers seat. Pipers? Were they driving to Scotland? Surely not, but then again, its Harry and anything is possible, although the drive would be quite long. Harry pulls onto the motorway and resists all of Louis’ probing questions. Louis finally stops and resigns himself to staring out the window. He briefly tries to torture the information out of Harry by constantly changing the radio station and even resorting to putting the station to a political chat programme, but Harry has resisted Louis' various forms of torture for years and this one is not going to work either. Harry finally turns off the motorway and Louis looks around for clues as to where they were and where they might be headed. He doesn’t recognize their location immediately and it isn’t until several more minutes down the road that he sees a possible destination looming in the distance. It is indeed a location that could very well have pipers, he concedes.  
“We are going to that castle up ahead?” Louis questions.  
“Yes, that is where we are heading.”  
“Are there pipers there?”  
“Yes, there are.”  
Harry pulls into the drive and Louis sees the sign. Hampton Court. The former palace of the Tudors. This is different.  
“We are getting the lecture tour, are we?”  
“Not if you don’t want it, but we could.”  
“Not interested. Curious, but not interested.”  
Harry parks and rounds the car to lead Louis out. He meets up with a man who has exited one of the buildings and shakes his hand and speaks to him briefly. The man gestures over to another building, shakes Harry’s hand again and walks away. Harry leads Louis in the direction that the man had indicated. Louis looks around and frowns at the lack of tourists at such a historic place. Harry opens the door to the building a guides Louis inside. A few turns and they enter a large room with, as promised and expected, a group of bagpipers. Upon their appearance, the familiar drone sounds as they start to play. Louis has no idea what song they are playing, although it sounds vaguely familiar, and he has never really been a fan of bagpipes to pay any attention to the songs.  
“Harry, did we come all this way just to listen to bagpipes?” Louis wants to know exactly how much of this he will have to listen to.  
“Well, there had to be some pipers, or else it wouldn’t be the gift today, but it isn’t the only thing. Do you know where we are?”  
Louis has no clue and looks around the room in search of any hints to the location within the palace.  
Harry decides to enlighten him “This is the Great Hall in Hampton Court, where Henry the Eighth romanced Anne Boleyn. And these are your pipers for the day. However, we are also going to have a special dinner here and stay in a cottage nearby the palace. We can’t stay in the palace, I tried, but this is as close as I can get, a private dinner in the Banqueting House, looking over the river, and a nice romantic night out.”  
Louis never doubts that Harry tried to get a room in the palace, but after a spectacular dinner with a stunning view of the Thames, he happily snuggles into Harry’s embrace under the covers in the bed of the guest cottage and feels like a king.

Its the last day of the gifts and honestly, Louis is both apprehensive about it, because its drums, as well as a bit sad. Harry has really gone all out on this grand plan of his and Louis can’t help but be a little morose about the gifts coming to an end. After waking up in the cottage and getting some breakfast from the food stocked in the kitchen, they head out. Louis assumes that they are heading for home, but Harry takes some different turns and they end up in the West End of London. He figures that this has something to do with today’s gift so he doesn’t question it until Harry pulls up to a theatre and hands off the keys to a valet who has run out to the car. Louis pops out of the car and stares up at the blank marquee and wonders what he is getting into this time. Harry puts a hand to his back and guides him inside. Once inside, Harry continues to guide Louis through the lobby of the theatre. Louis scans the area searching for clues as to the performance that is currently showing, but finds the theatre oddly vacant of any signs of current use. Harry continues until they get to the entrance of the theatre, where they are greeted by a man who welcomes them and leads them into the theatre. It isn’t the biggest theatre in the West End, not that Louis is familiar with the theatre, but its a lovely place.  
They are shown to some seats in the centre of the vacant theatre. Harry sits and turns to Louis.  
“I really hope that you have enjoyed all your gifts so far.”  
“Of course I have. Well, some of the birds were a bit much, but on the whole, I enjoyed it very much.”  
“Good. There is just one gift left. I really hope you like it.” Harry gestures back to the man who ushered them inside the theatre. The lights go dim and Louis turns his attention to the stage. A spotlight appears on the closed curtain, which then slowly parts. On stage appears the Blue Man group, in full regalia, and they begin pounding on the various drum like items on the stage. Louis sits and watches, enthralled. He has always wanted to see the group but is never able to. Now, he is sitting watching a private performance with an empty theatre. Louis grins madly at Harry, who flashes full dimples back at Louis. Time flies and finally with a resounding bang, the performance ends. Louis and Harry shoot to their feet, their applause echoing in the otherwise empty theatre. The curtain closes and Harry guides Louis back into the lobby.  
“That was amazing! This whole twelve days has been really wonderful. But how did you come up with this?”  
“I heard the song when I was trying to think of a gift for you and I thought that if those gifts impressed a true love then, they would surely impress you.”  
“Well, I will always remember this when I hear that song”  
Which is all Harry wanted to hear.


End file.
